


Gonna Share My Tin Man Heart

by Redrikki



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Ultimates, Spider-Man (Ultimateverse)
Genre: Canon Gay Character, Clones, F/F, Identity Issues, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-02 00:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5227673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kitty moves in.  Kitty moves out.  Moments in between.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gonna Share My Tin Man Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [milleniumrex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/milleniumrex/gifts).



> Spoilers for the entire run of _All New Ultimates_. Dialog at the beach taken from issue #4.

“Thanks for letting me stay here,” Kitty said as Jessica closed the door closed behind them. It had been nearly two weeks since the big showdown with Galactus and she still looked exhausted. It must be hard to get a decent night’s sleep with a small army of reporters camped outside your door. 

“No problem,” Jessica lied. She didn’t know what she had been thinking when she made the invite. They were practically strangers and Jessica really didn’t do friends. She did respected work colleagues and casual acquaintances with whom she beat people up. Peter had had friends, but Peter had been a real boy. Jessica was neither and she had no idea how this girl-on-girl friendship thing worked. Seriously, what were they supposed to do? Talk about boys and braid each others’ hair?

“Why don’t you give me the grand tour,” Kitty suggested, surveying the landscape. The apartment was a pretty good-sized place and a lot nicer than the dump Reed Richards had blown up a year ago. It was just one of the many perks of working for S.H.E.I.L.D. even if Jessica was usually too busy to spend much time in it. 

“If you look to your right, you’ll see the kitchen,” Jessica said in her best, chirpy tour-guide voice, “home of the hardworking microwave and the lazy stove I never use.” She sure hoped Kitty knew how to cook or they’d be living off of Hot Pockets and cereal. Jessica had spent so much time eating at the now-defunct S.H.E.I.L.D. cafeteria that she wasn’t even sure she has enough dishes for two. At least she didn’t have a heap of them piled up in the sink.

They drifted past the counter and bar stools that divided the kitchen from the living room. “And here,” Jessica continued, “we have the elusive spacious New York apartment, complete with comfy couch.” 

Kitty dumped her bags on the floor and plopped down on the couch. “This is where I’m sleeping, right?” she asked and gave it an experimental bounce. It wasn’t bad as non-bed accommodations went. Jessica had spent more than a few nights there passed out reading reports on her laptop. 

“Unless you wanted to bunk with me.” Oh, god, she actually just said that…to her straight roommate…who used to date Peter. It was wrong on so many levels. “Please forget I just said that.” 

“Done,” Kitty said. She didn’t seem upset. Maybe flirting and homoerotic subtext was totally normal for girls. “That the bedroom?” she asked gesturing toward the door. 

Jessica let her in and watched as her guest prowled through her bedroom. Peter’s room had always been a mess, but Jessica usually managed to keep things neat. Part of that was the S.H.E.I.L.D. training, but she also didn’t have anywhere near as much stuff. Kitty pawed through her stack of _The Journal of Biochemistry_ on the nightside table and tutted at the contents of her half-empty walk-in closet. “Nice,” she concluded. “Little spartan, but nice.”

Jessica opened her mouth to protest when it hit her that, comfy furniture and top-of-the-line electronics aside, Kitty was kind of right. There was no art on her walls. She had no photos of parents, friends or even celebrity crushes. There was nothing here to mark the place as hers aside from her sad stash of scientific journals. How pathetic was that? “Yeah,” Jessica drawled, rubbing the back of her neck. “I kind of have no life.”

“Pfff,” Kitty dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “Lives are over rated when you have Netflix.” She frowned. “You do have Netflix, right?”

“Yeah,” Jessica laughed.

“Well then, Jessica Drew” said Kitty, slinging her arm across Jessica’s shoulder, “I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.” 

****

The hard-light blades came fast. Jessica managed to dodge three before a fourth caught her in the left shoulder. For an instant it felt just like being stabbed, then the light faded and all that was left was a dull ache. Shaking it off, Jessica rushed her opponent with a yell. The other girl was getting good at a distance but tended to panic at hand-to-hand. 

Tandy’s light blast turned the room white and sent everyone flying. Jessica slammed hard against the church’s stone wall and slid to a heap on the floor. That was impressive. Maybe not the best idea in a training session, but it would certainly come in handy if Tandy was ever surrounded. Just as soon as she finished blinking the spots from her vision, Jessica would get up and tell her so.

“Oh, god,” Tandy shrilled over the ringing in Jessica’s ears. “I am so sorry. Is everyone okay?”

“What the hell was that?” Lana shouted, pulling herself to her feet. She looked more annoyed than injured as she got up in Tandy’s face. “You call that control?”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk.” Tandy shoved her away. “Blow up anything lately?”

Lana looked about ten seconds from blowing up something right then when Ty got in between them. “Okay,” he said in his most soothing fast-food manager voice, “you both need to calm down.”

Too bad it didn’t seem to be working. “Oh, right,” snarled Tandy, “take her side.”

“What?” Ty sounded genuinely confused and frustrated by the mystery that is a teenage girl’s brain. As a teenage girl herself, Jessica could say that without being sexist. In the meantime, she needed to get her ass off the floor before Ty tried to mansplain his way into making it worse. “What part of ‘you both’ is taking her side?”

And that was her cue. “Okay, how about _everybody_ needs to calm down. The whole point of training is to work the kinks out and no one is hurt.” Jessica quickly glanced at Miles to make sure it was true. He was on his feet and looked alright. He hadn’t said anything but he’d been quiet in general since his father had run away to go angst somewhere. 

“We’re done for the day,” Jessica announced. She could do that now. She was team leader. “Unwind, get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll run the drills again tomorrow. Okay?” No one seemed particularly thrilled with the idea, but the group broke up with minimal grumbling.

Back at her apartment, Jessica slumped against the door and screamed into her hands. Putting together a team of superheroes had sounded like such an awesome idea at Captain America’s funeral. Cap had been a complete a-hole and he had made it work. How hard could it be? Her past self was a naive idiot. 

“Welcome home, honey. Rough day at the office?” Kitty asked wryly from the kitchen counter.

Jessica smiled behind her hands. She’d forgotten how nice it was to have someone waiting for you at the end of the day. “If you were my real ‘50s wife you’d have a pot roast dinner and a glass of scotch waiting for me,” she mock-grumbled.

“Pizza okay?”

Jessica let her hands fall. The slice Kitty held out was sausage and peppers, her favorite. “God, I love you.” Kitty had only been living here for two weeks and Jessica was already wondering how she had survived all these years without a roommate.

They ate in companionable silence for a bit. Jessica helped herself to Kitty’s abandoned crust while the other girl snagged her next slice. “So,” Kitty asked, “how are the all new Ultimates?”

“Ugh,” Jessica groaned. Her inner drama queen wanted to call them a disaster, but that wasn’t quite right. “Skill-wise, they’re actually pretty good, but the inter-personal stuff is killing me. Ty and Tandy are an emotional rollercoaster, Lana’s a rebel without a clue, and Miles…” Somehow his issues hit her the worst. Maybe it was their spider connection or maybe it was the contrast between how excited he had been a year ago and how withdrawn he was now.

“And Miles?” Kitty prompted.

“He’s hurting.” Jessica slumped forward and buried her face in her arms. Maybe if she were a real leader like Cap or an inspiration like Peter she could find a way to make it all come together. “Being team mom is hard,” she whined. “And my back hurts.”

“Aw, poor baby,” Kitty mocked her. Then she got up and gave Jessica the best back massage of her life. “So,” she said as her fingers unnerving hit on the knot in Jessica’s shoulder where the blade had struck, “what you’re saying is that your team is giant mess.” She ground the heel of her hand into the small of Jessica’s back. “The same team you want me to join? I gotta say, you’re not really selling me on it.”

Jessica gasped as Kitty dug into a sore spot. “It will be better with you there,” she promised. 

“What makes you think that?”

The others would benefit from her skills, her experience in the field, and her years of actually having worked with a team. Jessica, meanwhile, would have the support of someone she didn’t have to play mommy to. “You make everything better.”

 

*****

Kitty strutted down the hall like a supermodel on the catwalk. The body armor on her new supersuit accentuated her curves as she did a slow turn and struck a pose. Her sultry Blue Steal expression was spoiled only by the hint of laughter in her eyes. 

“Bravo,” Jessica applauded. “I’ll take it. Very nice.”

“You think?” Kitty asked, staring down at her cleavage. She shrugged and flopped down next to Jessica on the couch. “I wasn’t sure about the colors.”

The red and yellow was certainly a switch from the pristine white of her last outfit, but joining a new team was nothing if not a perfect time to reevaluate your fashion choices. Jessica certainly had. “It’s a bold statement, but it works,” she assured her friend. “Hey, remember that outfit you wore when you first started with the X-Men?” Peter had left her with some fond memories of that mini-skirt. 

“Ugh,” groaned Kitty. “Don’t remind me.” She dramatically flung her hand against her forehead. “That’s what happens when you take fashion advice from teenage boys.”

Jessica wasn’t sure that was fair. Sure, the tiny dress and boots combo might have provided little to no protection and been more than a little cold in the winter, but Peter had loved it. It had been the inspiration for more than a few awkward erections. Which, come to think about it, kind of proved Kitty’s point. “Okay, yeah,” she conceded. 

“I’m just glad your joining the team, whatever you’re wearing.” Jessica pulled her friend into a one-armed hug. “The fact it’s awesome is just icing on the cake.” 

Blushing, Kitty shook her head and pulled away. “How could I not? After you guys’s last showing someone has be around to save you.” 

“You can save me any time.” 

*****

When Kitty suggested some non-crime fighting team building, Jessica hadn’t been sure, but an their afternoon with the girls at Coney Island was going great. They played games on the boardwalk, ate junk food and even managed to foil some crime. The four of them hit the beach like the pack of hot, superpowered white chicks they were with predictable results. Then, somewhere in the middle of failing the Bechdel test, Jessica ended up telling them about Peter. It wasn’t the first time she’d come out of the clone closet, but it felt like there was a lot more riding on it this go around. Maybe it was because she was actually becoming friends with these people or maybe it was on account of all the gay. 

“I like girls.” And, just like that, coming out as a lesbian was a heck of a lot easier than coming out as a clone. “I like girls, natural redheads in particular.”

“Great,” grumbled Kitty with a surprising amount of bitterness. 

“I kinda have a thing for Jewish girls, too,” Jessica rushed to reassure her. As far as she was concerned, Mary Jane was someone else’s fond memory, but Kitty was _her_ best friend. 

The topic shifted, as topics do, but tension lingered all through their sunbathing and the ride home. “Are you okay?” Jessica asked as she poured them each a glass of lemonade. “I didn’t make things weird with what I said at the beach, did I?” Kitty accepted her glass without meeting Jessica’s eyes which pretty much answered that question. “Is it the clone thing or the gay you’re having trouble with.”

“I’d have to be blind not to notice how you look at me.” Kitty slumped down on her stool, keeping the counter between them. “Peter and I used to date.” 

 

So clone then. That was almost comforting. “I know. Kitty,” Jessica reached for her friend’s hand, “I don’t like you because he did. I like you because you’re my awesome best friend who saved my life and the planet and is also seriously hot.”

Kitty pulled her hand away and and traced the lines of condensation down her glass. “He cheated on me. Peter. With MJ.” 

Okay, that…wasn’t all that surprising actually. Disappointing, but not surprising considering Peter and MJ had practically been soulmates. Since his death, everyone had been so busy canonizing him they forgot just how much of a dick Peter could be sometimes. “I am so sorry he did that to you,” Jessica told her, “but I’m not Peter. Our friendship is literally the most important thing in my life and wont do anything to risk that.” 

Jessica tried to push all her sincerity into her eyes as Kitty finally lifted her head. Her friend smiled ruefully and took her hand. “I know you won’t.” She gave Jessica’s hand a squeeze. “Super best friends forever.”

*****

Jessica stood on the balcony and gazed out over what had been New Jersey. In the apartment behind her, Tandy and Ty were busy screaming at each other. Again. She was seriously starting to regret her decision to let them crash here after the fire. If only S.H.E.I.D. was still around then she could set them up with enough funds and IDs for them to get their own place. Then they could go yell at each other there. 

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Kitty announced as she ghosted through the glass behind her and sent Jessica jumping a foot in the air.

“No kidding,” Jessica agreed once her heart stopped racing. “I’m, like, this close,” she held her fingers an inch apart, “from killing them.” 

Kitty leaned back against the railing. “Exhibit A as to why the two of us shouldn’t date.”

“Here and I thought it was because you’re straight,” Jessica laughed uncomfortably. As much as she might like to, she had made a point of not pressuring. It was always Kitty who brought it up.

The other girl shrugged and turned around the stare out at the ruin of New Jersey. “I don’t know how much more I can take.”

Jessica was pretty sure she didn’t mean the drama behind them or the fact there was now a line for the apartment shower. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

Kitty found her hand on the railing and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t be.” 

*****

Kitty’s suitcases were waiting just where they had dropped them when they finally got home from their kidnapping. Jessica nudged one with her her foot. “I guess you’re still moving out.” After the day they just had she was so heart-sore and body-sore the idea of being alone here again made her want to cry. 

“Yeah,” Kitty confirmed dully as she slumped against the wall. “We’re still friends. I’m still on the team, but I just can’t be here anymore.”

Okay, that stung. When Kitty moving out had been about reconnecting with her mom or finally being ready to resume her regularly scheduled life, Jessica had been all right with it. Sad, but all right. The idea that Kitty need to escape or something was downright hurtful. “Let me guess. This is where you say ‘it’s not you, it’s me,’” she snarled and instantly regretted it. The last thing she had wanted to do was push and here she was sounding like some Nice Guy asshole who thought she was entitled to Kitty’s love. “I’m sorry.”

“It _is_ me thought. Also you, but—”

“Can we not?” Jessica asked, turning away. Maybe if they didn’t make it through the whole cliché break-up script Kitty could leave the apartment with their friendship intact.

Kitty seized her shoulder and pulled her back around. “Jessica, I’m in love with you. You, this,” she gestured between the two of the in the face of Jessica’s stunned incomprehension, “is the best thing I’ve got going. I just can’t tell if it’s romantic or platonic and I need space to….to…”

“You,” Jessica swallowed the bubble of hysterical laughter trying to force its way up, “you need space to figure out your big gay crisis.”

“Okay, first off, it’s a big _bisexual_ crisis. And second-” She yanked Jessica into a kiss. It started as an awkward face mash, but quickly became something more. “So, can I keep my key?” Kitty asked, still slightly out of breath with her forehead pressed against Jessica’s.

It wasn’t as though she needed a key, being able to walk through walls and all, but that wasn’t what she was asking. “Whatever you decide, you are always welcome.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from "I Coulda Been a Contender" by Gaslight Anthem.


End file.
